On almost every version of the "Microsoft Lifecam" web camera, there is a call button on the device. The device is usually very small, and upon hitting the call button, you will have a program launched over and over again, in quite an annoying fashion, which can never be closed, called "IcePick.Exe". This program insists that you install Windows Live Messenger in order to use the camera. Wait a second, didn't you buy a webcam to use it for whatever program you damn well pleased? Well, perhaps this was not a priority for this model of webcams, unfortunately. The IcePick.exe file is named that for a reason: it is a complete nightmare to turn off - even killing it in the Task Manager does nothing.
So egregious is this scenario, that even using Microsoft's own Expression software will not allow you to disable the IcePick.exe nightmare.
The only solution not to be promoted to install Windows Live Messenger every 2 seconds, with no option to close the window whatsoever? Some old school cracking, that's how!
Assuming 64-bit Windows, use (x86) after Program Files... read on..
Now you won't get hammered with this web cam debacle. No other web cam seller plays this game on their customers except Microsoft. This had led me to the question many times, "Why didn't I just go with a Logitech?" Unfortunately, sometimes, MS is not too good. This is bad news for the LifeCam series. Whomever developed it did not want to play nice with 99.9% of all other video capture software! At least by linking it to a program like Skype, if that program is already opened, you will not get killed with Microsoft's literal "IcePick"
So egregious is this scenario, that even using Microsoft's own Expression software will not allow you to disable the IcePick.exe nightmare.
The only solution not to be promoted to install Windows Live Messenger every 2 seconds, with no option to close the window whatsoever? Some old school cracking, that's how!
Assuming 64-bit Windows, use (x86) after Program Files... read on..
- Open an elevated cmd.exe prompt (admin) by going to Start -> Run -> cmd.exe and right-click "Run as administrator"
- Under the command-line cd "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft LifeCam"
- rename IcePick.exe IcePick.bak
- Have Skype? Your favorite program? Find the path and make a symlink. Heres an example for Skype: mklink IcePick.exe "C:\Program Files (x86)\Skype\Phone\Skype.exe"
Code:
symbolic link created for IcePick.exe <<===>> C:\Program Files (x86)\Skype\Phone\Skype.exe